Self-serving post coming …
In Wednesday's Beacon Journal:
"How's that again? A team wins a few games and suddenly double-digit unemployment is going to be erased?
"This is the kind of sports-is-so-wonderful attitude that haughty media types and holier-than-thou athletic types love to perpetrate on the innocent public.
"Folks can be so down and out they're living in tents, yet their lives will change because a basketball team wins a few games.
"If it were only so easy."
It continues. And the critical commenters arrived early. Though one guy made a valid point when he said I'm critical of holier-than-thou types and come across the same way. I thought of that when writing this column, but really couldn't figure a way around it so I just laid out some feelings and opinions. They're not right because they're mine, but they are mine. All mine.
Be curious to know what the blog "regulars" think — the folks who seem to spend part of their day in the family room with me watching Seinfeld reruns while eating chips and guacamole. (And yes, part of the column was ripped right from a previous blog post.)
Do I need say "first" like all those other blog sites?
LOL
Pat
In case you missed my reply on your article, I thought I'd post it here too. My apologies on behalf of the others for people who think ripping you is the same as having a contrary opinion to what you write. I used to want to be a sports writer. But that was pre-blog era.
Anyway… My two cents:
Hi Pat. John from Japan writing in for the first time in a long time, just because of the silliness of the comments so far.
Half of the people who attacked above stopped reading about halfway through the article I am guessing.
Your points are largely valid.
I would just say one thing though… Back in the "Mistake By The Lake" period of Cleveland history, how much shame would have been partially alleviated by a Super Bowl championship?
Why is Red Right 88 remembered as strongly as the river catching on fire?
Sports results DO matter to people. We can argue whether they should… but I think its fairly true to say they do.
So yes, MSU winning would NOT have lowered the unemployment rate… But if MSU had won, a few thousand (or more) people would have smiled a bit more than they do now for several months anyway.
And for the rest of you posting comments… that's how you offer contrary opinion… by commenting on WHAT WAS WRITTEN. Get a life is NOT expressing the opposite opinion. It shows your inability to express yourself. Pat, you express yourself well always. Been a fan for years.
Take care.
john, do you ever check back when you post here??? damn!!!
shoot me an e-mail! ak_5150@hotmail.com—you know who i am. i believe we got locked out of your car after a browns playoff game and froze our asses off 20 or so years ago.
It's a college, it's not a professional team. But if you buy into the premise that the 1968 Tigers brought all of Detroit together during a rough time, then I suppose a few people would have gotten really excited for a few moments if Michigan State had won.
Who knows, maybe a few cars would have been set on fire. Jay Leno's self-serving free arena shows in Auburn Hills, a far cry from Detroit, would have been even funnier.
Now that there is a precedent, perhaps Andrew "Dice" Clay will launch a comeback by doing two free shows for Cleveland's unemployed. He could perform outside, in front of the ruins of the Richfield Coliseum. Nothing would cheer up Cleveland's unemployed more.